More than 400 high school athletes from across Alaska are in town for the statewide championship, which tests strength, endurance and agility.

Kyle Demientieff-Worl coaches an NYO team from Juneau. He spoke to the AP about the different games his athletes will compete in.

“Probably the most popular games that people know really well here in Alaska are the high-kicking games, where there’s a suspended ball in the air,” Demientieff-Worl said. “There’s a seal hop, which looks like you’re in a push-up position and you hop with your hands curled in like this in a lower push-up position. You go for distance– it’s a game of endurance.”

It’s also a game meant to mimic how subsistence hunters snuck up on seals on the sea ice.

Another event, called the Scissor Broad Jump, replicates leaping from one ice floe to the next in the Arctic Ocean.

The Native Youth Olympics are from today through Saturday. Opening ceremonies start at 1 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

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